Critics Slam New Ryan Murphy Legal Drama Starring Kim Kardashian

Topline

Kim Kardashian is getting scathing reviews for her leading turn in Ryan Murphy’s new legal television drama, “All’s Fair,” in which the billionaire influencer plays the owner of a divorce law firm, with critics slamming her acting as wooden, and one reviewer saying the series might be “the worst TV drama ever.”

Kim Kardashian’s performance in “All’s Fair” has been panned by critics. (Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images for Disney+)

Dave Benett/Getty Images for Disney+

Key Facts

The first three episodes of “All’s Fair” dropped on Hulu on Tuesday, with Kardashian leading a cast that includes award-winning actors Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash and Teyana Taylor.

Kardashian, who says she is also trying to become a lawyer, plays the owner of a firm staffed entirely by women specializing in divorce law, representing only women clients.

Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, are executive producers on the show, and Kardashian has said her character was inspired by celebrity divorce lawyer Laura Wasser, who was Kardashian’s attorney for her divorces from Kanye West and Kris Humphries.

“All’s Fair” has a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 11% score on review aggregator Metacritic, indicating “overwhelming dislike.”

Chief Critics

The Guardian critic Lucy Mangan gave the series a 0-star rating and called it “fascinatingly, existentially terrible,” calling Kardashian’s performance “expressionless” and “useless,” though she also criticized the other performances and said “no one seems to know what they’re doing; the performances seem to respond to about nine different ideas of what the show is.” The Times of London critic Ben Dowell said “All’s Fair” might be the “worst TV drama ever,” also giving it a dismal 0-star rating. Dowell blamed writer-creator Murphy and said the show attempts to be a “feminist fable about spirited lawyers getting their own back on cruel rich men but is in fact a tacky and revolting monument to the same greed, vanity and avarice it supposedly targets,” also singling out Kardashian for failing to play a convincing lawyer. The Telegraph critic Ed Power gave the series one star and slammed it as a “crime against television,” calling it “one of the worst things [Murphy] has ever done.” Power said Kardashian has “no aura, no unfiltered charisma” and a “complete absence of screen presence,” but said it is unfair to single her out because the acting is “awful” all around. The Hollywood Reporter critic Angie Han said Kardashian’s performance is “stiff and affectless without a single authentic note,” though she also blamed the writing, stating “when the dialogue isn’t so bland it borders on inane, it’s so extravagantly profane as to be exhausting.” USA Today’s Kelly Lawler called “All’s Fair” the worst show of the year, calling it an “embarrassingly terrible show with scripts worse than what Chat GPT was spitting out two years ago and acting worse than your local Christmas pageant,” adding Kardashian’s “bland line readings can’t give her anything close to the title of ‘actress.’”

When And Where Is ‘all’s Fair’ Streaming?

The first three episodes of “All’s Fair” released Nov. 4 on Hulu. Subsequent episodes will release weekly on Tuesdays.

Key Background

Kardashian and Murphy previously collaborated on “American Horror Story: Delicate,” the twelfth season of Murphy’s long-running horror anthology series. That effort received much better reviews, scoring a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes with some praise for Kardashian’s performance. In a critical review of the series, USA Today’s Patrick Ryan called Kardashian the only reason to watch, stating she “cleverly” leans into a Valley girl persona while playing a Hollywood publicist.

Tangent

Murphy, a prolific television producer, has won six Emmys and earned dozens more nominations for his television shows, though critical responses to his shows tend to vary. Murphy is known for creating shows like “Glee,” “American Horror Story,” “9-1-1” and “Pose,” which were positively received and have won awards. But despite winning Emmys for his recent hit, “Monster,” an anthology series that has covered real-life cases including Jeffrey Dahmer, Erik and Lyle Menendez and Ed Gein, the series has garnered mostly negative reviews with some critics accusing him of exploiting real-life victims.